CEO: Frontline Mind
Resilience training for Frontline and business personnel
Performance Coach
Elite performance coaching and trauma therapy
Author: Untrain Your Brain
A guide to freedom from the neurons that hold you back.
“If you position yourself as an expert, coach or advisor, you better be able to walk the talk. My perspective is that to work with elite performers, a coach should have tested and proven his or her methods in the domain they work in. I would never collaborate with an arm chair expert who avoids his or her own skin in the game. It’s simple to me, live your message authentically, or keep quiet.”
CEO: Frontline Mind USA
Clarity in action, performance under pressure
My main focus since 2015 has been as co-founder and CEO at Frontline Mind (Part of Frontline Training and Research Group), our global training company that works with people in the defense forces, emergency services, law enforcement, correctional services, social care, athletes, universities, and businesses of all sizes.
The role of CEO is one that I am constantly required to raise my own standards as I lead an agile and rapidly growing team.
Working as a coach for over 15 years has taught me many of the skills required to get the best from people and I view a large part of my CEO role as chief coach, whose purpose is to foster and develop the brilliance that our team already embodies.
I think that leaders perform their role best when they ask,
‘How can I ensure our people are supported to develop into their own leadership roles and in doing so, achieve outcomes that we will all be proud of for years to come?’
Working with Mike has been outstanding. I’m now aware of the potential and possibilities that have been untapped in my own life and profession. Our work has been specific to my needs and has challenged my thinking and awareness. I’m excited about continuing to develop and grow, to find ways to higher performance levels, success, leadership – and winning!Anthony Hudson
Managing Coach (Colorado Rapids)
Performance Coaching
I work with individuals and teams who are committed to becoming the best in their field
Prior to stepping into the role of CEO, I lived fifteen years as a trainer, coach, professional climber and adventure athlete. I’ve trained elite performance methods to professionals across a diverse range of fields; from world class athletes, Special Forces teams, the US Marine Corp, Firefighters, Police, celebrities, business execs and many individuals and teams that excel in their roles.
I’ve learned from a wide range of clients that everyone can make huge leaps in their performance by learning the fundamentals of mastering their own neurology. Many exemplars arrive at the top of their field with little understanding of the unconscious processes that they have developed along the way. World class success often arises because of a deep commitment to the desired outcome, and then lengthy trial and error. My work bypasses much of the lengthy trial and error and goes straight to the pattern detection of what works, regardless of the field a person or team is operating in.
I study (to name a few) the likes of John Grinder, Gregory Bateson, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Ian McGilchrist, Jeremy Lent, Nicholas Taleb and any thinker who has complexity and a non-reductionist view of life at the heart of their work.
Systems and complexity thinking, pattern detection, modelling and replicating excellence are my driving interests and activities.
“Mike is the greatest coach I have ever encountered. His action oriented, no bullshit approach completely changed my life. I will always love him for what he has done for me.”
Jack Osbourne, TV Producer
Disaster Response and Recovery
Some of the most rewarding and life changing work that I engage in is with Humanitarian NGO’s assisting in disaster relief, in which I use my skills to remove the effects of extreme events and any accompanying PTSD.
I’ve previously been the lead for mental health at the field hospital for Sean Penn’s JPHRO, which was responsible for the safety and well being of over fifty thousand displaced Haitians’ who lost their homes after the 2010 quake. My primary role was providing creative interventions to the huge number of people suffering symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as training local Haitians to continue the work in my team’s absence.
I have made numerous subsequent visits to Haiti with an American medical NGO of which I am privileged to be an advisor and first response member to disasters such as Typhoon Haiyan.
Climber and Adventurer
Aside from my family, my first love will always be the planet’s wild places.
In 2017 I moved our US operations to Colorado so that I could call ‘The Rockies’ my home. Adventure is at the heart of everything I do and my love affair with climbing only gets stronger after 27 years. At last count I have travelled to over fifty-four countries, including repeated trips to the Peruvian Amazon where I trained groups to model and use local indigenous practices.
I’ve trekked with and learned from Creole trackers in dense rainforest (Belize), ran and completed the ultimate ultra marathon across the Sahara, trained for months in Kick Boxing in the place of its birth (Thailand), ran the full mountain routes with the Marathon Monks of Mount Hei (Japan), kayaked, skydived, skied, ice climbed, sailed and free-dived for large parts of my life.
Author: Untrain Your Brain
From the back cover: Right now, be it great or dire, your life is the sum total of your thoughts, choices, actions and habits; everything in your life can be traced to the way you think and how this influences what actions you take.
But all too often our thoughts and feelings seem to have a mind of their own, with negative beliefs and emotions running amok in our brain, making it difficult, if not impossible, to make much needed changes in our lives. That was, until now.
My book, ‘ Un-train Your Brain’ is published through Vermillion. Told through real life stories of coaching adventures from around the world, Un-Train Your Brain is an adventurous guide to learning how to overcome the thinking and habits that hold you back from achieving what you desire. This book will enable you to choose how you feel and experience each moment, transforming your daily habits into actions that will lead to being your very best.
